The accreditation card issued to journalists covering the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou does not include the name of their country. That is why when Wang Chu, a volunteer I met at the Games venue, asked my nationality, I could not show him my ID card. When I told him I came from India, he smiled and muttered: "Yin-tu, Yin-tu." Thinking that he confused India with Indonesia, I repeated, "India, India… your neighbours." Wang Chu too repeated himself "Yin-tu, Yin-tu". It was when another volunteer intervened in our 'dispute' and explained to me that 'Yin-tu' is India in Mandarin, China's official language.
There should be a Mandarin equivalent of words from languages across the globe! They call their country 'ZhongGuo' in the local language while the Asian Games is 'yayun hui' for them. Since apple is 'pingguo', the iPhone is also known by the same name!
Until recently, the Chinese were not too keen to learn English as they believed Mandarin had already replaced English as the global language! However, learning English has now become a fad among the Chinese youth as they believe the language is an important tool to help them connect with the world.
A female volunteer introduced herself to me saying that her Mandarin name is 'Liuwye' and her English name is 'Lucy'.
English has always been a major barrier for China in hosting international multi-sport events including the Asian Games. To overcome communication barriers, the volunteers in Hangzhou are armed with an AI-powered translation tool. If you approach them for help, they would ask you to speak into a translation device that is designed to capture your voice and translate the words you speak into Mandarin or other major languages. If the volunteers respond in Mandarin, the device will translate it into English.
As I stood there marvelling at the accuracy of the 'translator', I decided to examine the device's Malayalam proficiency and asked it for directions to get to the media centre. Within seconds, the device translated the volunteer's reply in Mandarin into English: "Go straight and then turn left. The media centre is on your right side!"
